There are many different myths around firearms. Most of them, one way or another, concern how the bullets behave after they leave the barrel. For example, there is a popular belief that a 5.45 mm bullet ricochets off literally everything, even grass and leaves, and is also unable to pierce the branches of bushes and trees. Including the thinnest ones. Is it really so?
Bullets of 5.45 mm caliber really ricochet from literally everything they come into contact with. However, in practice, things look quite different from what most people who do not practice shooting on a "professional basis" imagine. The fact is that in the fantasies of many comrades, the ricochet from the grass looks like an instant change in the trajectory of the bullet by almost 90 degrees. Nothing of the sort actually happens.
Neither foliage, nor thin branches, let alone grass, are not able to extinguish any significant part of the kinetic energy that was imparted to the 5.45 mm bullet at the time of the shot. The striking element leaves the barrel of the weapon at a speed of about 910 m / s and moves steadily forward. At this moment, the bullet is influenced by the friction force from the air (including the wind) and the force of gravity, which somehow make it lose energy.
It is for this reason that the bullet gradually changes its trajectory and falls. Moreover, each bullet has a center of gravity, which allows it to move in a strictly defined direction. When hitting with any object, one way or another, a temporary violation of the center of gravity will occur, and the ammunition will shift. However, everything here will depend on how much energy the bullet will lose in a collision.
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For example, when hitting a human body, a 5.45 mm bullet also begins to "ricochet", somersault due to a violation of the center of gravity and falling into a harsher environment than air. It is for this reason that all wounds have a gradually expanding traumatic channel - a small hole at the entrance and a bloody "mess" inside. In this case, both the leaves and the grass act on the bullet in a similar way.
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However, that leaves with grass, that small branches of plants remain too light and not rigid enough. Unable to absorb most of the kinetic energy of the striking element, they change the trajectory of the bullet by millimeters at best. So there is a ricochet, but very little. If you shoot through the crown of a tree or through a bush at the target, then all the bullets will most likely reach it without any problems.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why on the ring grenades F-1 applied pink varnish.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/250520/54653/